Veteran out Hollywood actor Tab Hunter has died three days before what would have been his 87th birthday. No cause of death has been publicly shared.
A message on the Facebook page for the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential confirmed the news:
“SAD NEWS: Tab passed away tonight three days shy of his 87th birthday. Please honor his memory by saying a prayer on his behalf. He would have liked that.”
Hunter was born Arthur Gelien in 1931. After his parents separated when he was a child, he moved to California to stay with his mother.
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He started booking acting gigs in Hollywood in the 1950s. After he was cast as Robert Mitchum’s younger brother in 1955’s Track of the Cat, his career started to gain momentum.
Related: Tab Hunter pens moving essay about his secret relationship with Anthony Perkins
He went on to star in Battlecry in the same year, which wound up being a huge hit for Warner Bros. That started a successful run as one of the studio’s go-to leading men.
For decades, Hunter kept his sexuality hidden. As a gay man working in Hollywood at that time, coming out would have meant instant career suicide.
Still, he maintained relationships with some high-profile partners, most famously Psycho star Anthony Perkins and figure skater Robbie Robertson.
For the last 35 years, and up until his death, Hunter was in a relationship with producer Allan Glaser.
Related: The secret love affair between Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins is getting the Hollywood treatment
Glaser helped produce the 2015 documentary Tab Hunter Confidential, based on Hunter’s 2005 memoir of the same name.
Last month, news broke that the film/memoir, which chronicles Hunter’s clandestine relationship with Perkins, is fittingly receiving the Hollywood treatment.
Tab & Tony is being produced by Zachary Quinto and J.J. Abrams. Doug Wright, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Tony-winning play I Am My Own Wife, has been tapped to pen the screenplay.
Perkins, who is best remembered for his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992.
A release date for Tab & Tony has not yet been announced.
QueerTruth
I saw the documentary a couple years ago. (Tab Hunter Confidential). It was great. He was a very complex man and seemed like a good human being, and more serious about his craft than you would imagine.
Sending all my thoughts to his friends and family. RIP Tab.
Chrisk
Last of his kind. Rip.
kevininbuffalo
Rest in peace Tab. For anyone who hasn’t seen it “Tab Hunter Confidential” was a very good film, check it out!
Kieran
Would love to see it. Maybe the LOGO aka “the Gay channel” can manage to run the documentary in between re-runs of ‘Mama’s Family’ and ‘Married with Children’.
nm4047
search Netflix, streamed it a couple of months ago, will still be on their catalogue
Ptar1
Rest in peace.
[email protected]
In his own way, he most certainly had an impact on those that were to follow. In ’64 (54 years ago) saw him, along with Bankhead in William’s “Milktrain”. While sadly there were only to be 5 performances, it was just the same, indeed an memorable experience watching these two.
rbernard?
You have to hand it to Tab Hunter for managing to live his life so fully in a era when society was often cruel to gay men. I saw the Tab Hunter flic a couple of years ago and what a full life this icon lived.
mz.sam
RIP to a great Hollywood legend and true human being. Tab looked amazingly fit and much younger beyond his years (80’s) when he appeared in person for Q & A after a premiere screening of Tab Hunter Confidential. History must thank is loving partner for producing this film
Scout
Tab was born too early. If he’d been born in the 50’s or 60’s, he’d have been an amazing icon to gay youth trying to find themselves in the 21st Century.
roblebald77
The ice skater was Ronald Robertson, not Robbie Robertson. Robbie Robertson is the lead singer of The Band.
Bromancer7
I read he died of a heart attack due to a blood clot from his leg.
Tombear
@Kiernan, and every time their is a “Golden Girls” episode running on LOGO you are glued to the television! ‘Fess up!